Kundura: As evening approaches, Mundiguda village under Dangaripaunsi panchayt in Kundura block of Koraput district looks deserted. Reason: A bear enters the village in search of food for her newborn cubs.
According to sources, the bear had stridden into the village December 15 and given birth to three cubs in a farmland, belonging to a villager. To feed the baby bears, the animal enters the village looking for food.
However, the beast’s presence sets alarm bells ringing in the village. Fearing for their lives, the local residents shut down their shops and lock their houses just after the sunset.
As the farmlands of the villagers are along the main road, they are scared to go to their farms where the cubs along with their mother were seen roaming.
The villagers also fear to go near the irrigation points and irrigate their farms as the lift irrigation point is only 50 metres away from the temporary shade of this wild animal. “This is causing loss to us,” the local farmers claimed.
Meanwhile, as the villagers started pressing the forest department to shift the newborns to another place, it put up cages at Dangaripaunsi to capture the cubs, but failed as the newborns are yet to open their eyes.
This attempt to capture the cubs has made the bear more aggressive. Divisional forest officer Aswin Kar said the cubs would be transferred to another place after they open their eyes.
PNN